Pea
by AbbiDaSquirrel
Summary: This retelling of the classical tale of the Princess and the Pea follows Pea, a blind fighter girl living in Toulouse. But her mysterious past plagues her and an equally mysterious man won't stop bothering her!
1. Part 1: The Morel House

_A/N: Yup, I'm back with another one! This is my Lunar Chronicles retelling of the Princess and the Pea, set in Toulouse/Paris, France. The story follows the adventure of a blind fighter girl with a mysterious past. Hope you enjoy!_

* * *

Left arm, right arm, duck and dodge, knee to the crotch, elbow to the back of head. Her opponent lay on the ground, groaning. "Cheater!" he cried, spitting blood. "Lying, scheming cheat!" he continued to jeer as the crowds booed him off the floor.

She dusted herself off gave him a smug smile and wink and went to collect her earnings. "That's the sixth win in a row, tonight, Pea!" an admirer patted her on the back with a heavy hand. "Claw was the top winner for the past year!"

Pea smirked. "He didn't last long." she chuckled. "I was expecting more of a challenge!" she hollered over the noise of the crowds.

"How do you do it?!" He exclaimed. "It's true, isn't it? That you're blind? Your eyes look weird and they're always shut! So how do you do it?!"

She placed a finger on her lips and smiled with a knowing glint in her eye. "That's for me to know."

The bell dinged, signaling the beginning of the next match. One of the usual suspects, a short, stocky man who made up for his height in strength, against one of the newer guys. He was tall, rough-looking, covered in scars.

Pea could feel them as they scrabbled on the center floor, the audience cheering. The small man had the advantage, having been fighting for years, but she could feel the new guy's ferocity as he pounded him, his fighting technique reminded Pea of the wolves that wandered around the woods outside Toulouse. She heard a snap, then the smaller guy fell to the floor. "My nose!" he yelled in a shrill voice. The wolf-guy gave a chuckle, then stepped off the stage. Pea lost his footsteps in the sea of vibrations left by the throbbing crowds.

She moved to the platform, her turn again. "You ready?" asked the announcer. "Last match of the night! You're up against Dragon Tooth." He whispered as he pulled her up onto the stage.

Dragon Tooth. She'd heard about him before, a bartender from one of Toulouse's underground clubs described him to her. He was tall and slim, a cyborg, apparently, but most of that was inside his body. The stuff that was outside was worse than any kind of cyborg surge. He had crimson scales that covered his arms and legs, with large spikes going down his spine, and studded across his knuckles. Apparently, he was a better fighter than Claw, but he didn't show up enough to top him on the scoreboards.

"Aw, I can't hit a little girl!" She heard him, standing across the ring. "She's practically a toddler!"

"I'm seventeen, you dick! Too scared to fight a chick, huh?!"

He shifted, contemplating it for a moment, before the bell sounded and he came barreling towards her. He was fast, quicker than most of the other fighters, but Pea could feel him from a mile away. She ducked to the left and gave him a swift kick to the knees. He didn't come down, but he stumbled, cursing under his breath. "How the hell-?"

She had him in a headlock before he could even finish his sentence. Flipping him onto his back, she pinned him down in two sharp movements and pummeled his face with her blistered, callous fists.

But she was smaller than him, he grabbed her by the shoulders and swung her off of him and into the side of the ring like an empty sack. Pea rebounded off the ropes and landed like a cat. She snarled, and hurled herself at him in retaliation. She could feel his body shift and anticipated the hit from the right. But suddenly, a thundering punch was delivered from the left. Her cheek throbbed, gushing with blood. "Caught on to me, huh?" she laughed. "Those are some nice implants you got on your knuckles!" she gestured to wherever he was.

"I'm smirking right now!" He roared. "I know all about you, blind bitch! I know how you work."

Pea grinned, exposing her pearly whites. "Finally, a challenge!"

He thrust forward, his weight shifting left and right, closer, and closer. Pea knew she couldn't trust the vibrations in the floor anymore and just ducked. She shot beneath him, between his legs and somersaulted to the opposite side of the stage.

"Oh, how scary! You gonna dodge me like a monkey or fight me like a man?!" Dragon Tooth jeered.

She raised an eyebrow. "You know," she ducked beneath a punch, "I really hate guys like you." Knee to his groin.

He stumbled back, grumbling under his breath.

"You assume that girls will be girls," Dodge left, "and boys will be boys." Right hook. "And that if a girl decides to do what boys do," hit to the chin, "or a boy does what a girl is supposed to do," she took a kick to her side and crumpled, but shot back up before he could pin her down, "then they should be judged only as a girl, or only as a man." She twirled out of his way seconds before he attempted to land another crippling blow. "Rather than judge them as a _person_."

The crowds were screaming, begging for blood, watching intensely as they fought. Pea was panting, nearly out of breath, but Dragon Tooth wasn't much better off. Neither fighter could get a decent hit in, but Pea had certainly taken the most damage. "Is that all you're going to do?!" Dragon Tooth shrieked. "Jabber on and on?! Your voice is so annoying!" He thrust a palm under her chin.

A loud snap reverberated through her head.

Her opponent smirked. "What'cha think of that?!" he taunted as she fell back, unable to react.

The room fell silent. The air was dead.

"But you know what?" her voice echoed in the silence as she ignored his mocking jab. She pulled herself back up, and spun her leg out in a flash, bringing Dragon Tooth down to level ground with her. "I may not be a man," she kneeled down on top of him, pinning his struggling hands to his sides with her knees and brought his face up to hers by the scruff of his shirt and hissed, "but I sure as hell ain't a '_little girl_'!" She smashed his forehead against hers and knocked him out.

A roar thundered through the room, bouncing off the walls, in praise of their winner. They pulled her from the stage, she could feel every hand, every commending pat, creepy pervert, and idolizing fan as she passed over them. She felt nauseous, sea sick, and tired.

Pea barely made it through the rest of the night. She wasn't used to fights that lasted longer than a few minutes. She downed a few drinks with some fans, answered a couple of questions, and even signed a few autographs, though she doubted they looked like anything resembling the word "Pea".

As she stumbled out of the Morel House and slowly down the hill, she suddenly froze. The wind stopped and the air stiffened. "Hello?" she called.

"Ah, there you are! I was wondering when you'd notice me!" A voice called out from the bottom of the hill. "Won't you come talk?!" he yelled.

Pea shifted uncomfortably, contemplating whether or not to bother. It wasn't like she couldn't take him if he turned out to be some sort or rapist or murderer, but she was tuckered out, and ready to plop into bed.

"Come on, I won't bite!" he called.

Pea sighed, and finished her way down the hill in silence. "What?" she remarked dryly. "I'm tired and bored and I want to go to sleep, so make it quick."

"Oh, that's alright! I'll walk with you." He reassured her. "I just had a proposition for you."

She rolled her eyes and stalked off. "I don't have sex with strangers! Back off, creep!"

The man rushed after her. "No, no, no! That's not what I'm here about. I have no interest in your body...well...not in that way. No, I want to fight!" he exclaimed.

Pea scoffed. Based on how he walked, she could tell he wasn't much of a fighter. His stance was more of an upper-class businessman type. Tall and lean, maybe a little muscle from his daily hour at some swanky gym. "Oh please. What kind of masochistic little freak are you? I could pound you in seconds."

"This is a special kind of fight!" he had to race to keep up with her. "I promise, it's like nothing you've ever done before!"

"I told you, I'm not a whore!"

"It's not sex, I swear! But I can't tell you much about it, it's a bit of a surprise."

She stopped abruptly, a dark look passed over her face. "Look, _mister_, I don't want to put up with some weirdo's crap all night! There is only _one_ person I can stand not giving me straight answers, and you sure as hell aren't them! I'm tired and I'm not interested! Now back off!"

"Please! I promise, you'll want to do this! If you win the fight, you won't regret it!"

Pea stormed down the road and into her apartment, grumbling. She was careful not to wake up Nadia as she crept into bed.

Sleep washed over her like a wave over the sand, and soon she was dragged into a dreamless state of nothingness.

* * *

_A/N: So...yeah! Hope you liked that first chapter. Yes, there were some references to Scarlet in there, including one little fighter boy we all know and love (no, he is not an important character in this). _

_I don't have much to say here other than to check out my illustrated cover for Pea ( art/Pea-Cover-396618574) and check it out full screen!_


	2. Part 2: Sense

Pea woke up to the obnoxious clanging of cast iron pots and pans. Nadia was hunched over their old-fashioned, second-era, electric stove, flipping some sort of shapeless batter blob in a pan. Her confident demeanor seemed weaker then usual. She bustled very closely to the stove, her movements too careful.

"It's getting worse, isn't it?" Pea mumbled as she came up behind Nadia.

"Nonsense." Nadia croaked. "I'm just a little tired."

Pea rolled her eyes. "Sure. Whatever." She pulled one of the chipped, old plates from the cupboard and plopped down at their antique table. Nadia stacked some pancakes on a platter and turned off the griddle while Pea fumbled in her seat.

Nadia's wrinkled feet padded the floor towards Pea. "One or two?" she inquired.

"Three."

She laughed. "Silly girl, I don't want to fatten you up too much!" she pushed four pancakes onto Pea's plate and then two onto her own. Her chair screeched like nails on a chalkboard as she pulled it out and sat down.

Pea twiddled her thumbs for another minute before digging in. Nadia always liked to say grace before a meal.

"Thanks you to the many farmers who planted and harvested the wheat to make this meal. Thank you to the androids who scanned the ingredients for anything dangerous or unhealthy. Thank you to the bots and machines that packaged the batter, and thank you to Beattie's Pancake's for making pancakes easier to make and more efficient to bake!" she chuckled at her rhyme.

Pea tapped her nails along the mahogany table impatiently. "Yeah, thanks, or whatever." She muttered quietly.

"Oh you useless girl, you aren't the least bit grateful!" the old woman chastised her.

Pea sighed agitatedly. "Thank you farmers. Thank you androids. Thanks machines and Beattie. Happy now?"

"Of course."

It was silent for a little while. The only sounds were the echoing ring of their forks against the cracked china and the chattering of the early-morning folk walking outside.

"You know, if you're going to go insane and die, you won't be able to tell me anything about myself. You'll leave me alone with this mess of a house and not a single memory of myself." Pea broke the silence.

Nadia hesitated before answering. Not an awkward pause, just a contemplative one. "That was rather blunt." she finally huffed.

"You're avoiding the question again. Just tell me who I am already!"

"That's not for you to know right now. Just wait."

Pea shot up. Her fork clattered to the floor. "I've done my waiting! I've had it with being in the dark about everything- including myself!"

Nadia kneeled down to pick up Pea's fallen utensils and set them carefully on the table. "In time, little girl." She reassured her.

Pea stomped. "Don't you get it?! I'm not a little girl! I'm not stupid, either! I know you're dying! Just because I can't see, doesn't mean I can't see!" She barked. "Don't treat me like I'm still ten, Nadia! It's cruel and selfish! You could die at any time!" Her voice cracked. "You could collapse and I can't do anything about that and then what? What if you haven't told me who I am? What if you haven't told me what I'm supposed to do? What do I do then, huh?! What do I do?!"

Across the table, Nadia smacked her lips together and breathed heavily.

"Where am I supposed to go? W-who can I turn to?" Pea gasped. "I-I have no one else. I don't even have an identity." She sniffled, holding back the tears that threatened to stream down her face.

"Are you finished?"

Pea wiped the tears away before they could spill past the brim of her eyes. "Am I...?" She thought for a moment. "You know what? I think I am. I'm finished with you, Nadia. I don't need this anymore. I can just... figure it out for myself."

She dumped her plate in the sink and left quietly to her side of the room. Pulling a hefty sack from underneath her mat, she slowly placed her few belongings in the bag and weeped quietly. In the kitchen, Nadia finished her food in silence and set what was left in the garbage.

A soft, wrinkled hand suddenly caressed Pea's arm. "Okay, you silly girl." Nadia mumbled softly. "I'll tell you what you need to know."

Pea turned and collapsed into Nadia's arms. "I'm sorry!" she sobbed. "I'm sorry about what I said. I just can't take it anymore."

"I know, I know, sweetheart." Nadia murmured. "I've got you, don't worry."

As Pea unpacked, Nadia unraveled Pea's mysterious past to her, relaying how her father, a member of the lunar royal guard, one of the queen's top thaumaturges, went behind the back of the queen herself to get the young Princess Selene to earth. He was caught and sentenced, but not before he, and several other rebels, succeeded in getting Selene to safety. After his execution, the royal court targeted the rebels' families, and Pea's mother was soon lost as well.

In the hopes of granting a safer life for Pea, just as her father had done for the princess, Pea's grandmother, Nadia, snuck Pea down to earth at the age of nine and had her memory wiped to keep her powers from fully establishing. In order to keep the secret, Nadia knew she would need to stop using her glamour,. This was causing her to age faster and faster, and grow increasingly more ill. But Pea, who was so young she barely had any control of her glamour, was safe.

Once Nadia was finished, Pea sat there speechless. The room was so still, it seemed that even the world outside their window had stopped.

Pea took a deep breath. "Well then... so I'm...lunar?"

Nadia grinned. "Yes, my dear. And of noble blood, as well. Your birth name was Desmoins Adaria. You were named after my mother, but I think 'Pea' suits you much better."

"I hate peas." Pea sneered in reply.

"I know, darling." Nadia winked. "But you were right. I am dying. I can feel my bones getting weaker every day, and to be quite frank, it took me a while this morning to even realize who I was."

"No...you can't- not this fast!" she cried.

"You were right to make me tell you. I need to teach you how to control yourself. I've seen it, you may not know it, but you still use your glamour sometimes. You always have, but not at the caliber I've seen as of lately."

Pea raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? How can I control something I didn't know I had?"

"It just comes with who you are. There isn't much you can do to stop it without the knowledge and willpower. Do you remember last week when you were caught stealing that chocolate bar?"

"The storekeep let me have it. He said I looked starved." Pea stated.

Nadia shook her head. "No, that was you manipulating him. No one else noticed, but I could see it. He seemed so confused after we turned to leave, and the way you were staring at him...even though you couldn't see him."

"But- I don't understand. How can I hide it?!"

"Don't."

"What do you mean, 'don't'?" Pea cried. "If I'm caught who knows what could happen!"

"Hush, my girl." Nadia whispered. "Your gift is not something to hide. I hid mine to keep you safe, because I could not control it well enough. But you, you are young. You are smart and powerful. I will guide you, Pea. Don't hide in the shadows like I did. Stand up for yourself and be who you are."

Crinkling her nose, Pea replied. "That's ridiculous! I'm not going to go out there and get myself killed!"

"I'm not saying to go out into the world and announce you're a lunar. The world isn't ready for you yet. But embrace who you are."

"That sounds like a second-era cliche." said Pea dryly.

"You are hopeless."

Pea laughed. "I'm fantastic. When can we get started?!"

"Excuse me?!"

"You're going to teach me, right? How to control my powers, and all that?"

Nadia looked flustered. "Well... yes, I just-"

"Didn't expect me to be this excited, huh? Well I got news for you, Nadia. I know who I am now. There is no way you're taking that from me again. Now let's get down to business."

They spent the day going over the convoluted history of Luna and its monarchy. Pea wasn't inclined to learning- relearning - her own moon's history, but once she knew the basics, Nadia got down to her gift.

"Everyone has bioelectricity." Nadia explained. "Lunar or human, we all have it. All those neurons that fire in your brain, a thousand times a second, that charging rush of nerves and all those bits of the brain that the humans don't even understand. But you, Pea, you can control what they can't. You just need to understand it."

"Okay..." Pea seemed unconvinced. "What, do I just look at someone and make them think stuff? I didn't think it would be that easy."

Nadia scoffed. "It's not, silly girl. First, you must be aware of the bioelectricity around you. Your own glamour. You're always using it, you know."

"I am?" Pea was bewildered.

Nodding, Nadia explained. "Of course! It's probably the only inherent bioelectric powers you have right now."

"Then- what... I really don't get this. Are you saying I don't really look like this? I mean, I barely remember what I looked like before I was blind, but... was that all a lie, too?"

"No, darling, your glamour is fairly similar to your actual appearance. I've seen it flickering through before. You are yourself. But it's still there. Can you feel it?"

"No." Pea huffed impatiently.

Nadia sighed. "Okay, then. Close you eyes."

"I'm blind, remember?"

"Just do as a I say. Now stop fidgeting, calm yourself!"

Pea obliged. "Okay, now what?"

"Hush!" cried Nadia. "Now, listen. Just listen."

At first, Pea couldn't help but roll her closed eyes. "Listen?" she thought. "What's the point of that? I already know how to!"

"Are you listening?"

Pea slumped, but gave in. She let herself hear everything. Her breathing was slow and shallow. Her grandmother tapped her fingers across the floor with a clack-clack. The wind blew outside, shaking the open window and shutters with a soft banging sound. The trees out there rustled in the same breeze. Children giggled in the park down the street and the footsteps of young couples walking together beat steadily on the cobblestone sidewalk. A single bird chirped by the tavern across the road until a delivery ship landed with a loud and thundering boom.

Nadia grinned. "Keep listening." She whispered.

It felt like Pea had a sudden uncanny awareness of everything around her. She listened deeper, doing more than just hearing. She could feel it now, too. The blood that normally flowed through her veins in silence now gushed and flew. She could hear it; it was pouding screaming, raging.

"That's it." Nadia crooned.

There was more. Pea's organs grumbled and squeaked inside her like un-oiled gears of an old-timey machine. Her eardrums roared. Pea was hyperaware of every sound, everything.

But the loudest sound was her heart. It thudded with a fast, steady beat, contracting and expanding. It rumbled as blood whooshed in and out her ventricles and circulated her body.

She was sound. She was all sound.

"Yes!" Nadia lauded. "Yes!"

In and instant it was gone.

"Why'd you do that?!" Pea yelled. "I had it!"

"And you'll have it again. You can do it now, but there's more. It's not just hearing, but feeling."

Pea groaned. "Oh, come on! I'm the queen of feeling! How do you think I win all those fights?!"

"That's why it will be easy for you. It will be natural. Many people have little control over their glamour and their powers because they cannot feel. But you, my darling, have been blessed. Despite what some would call a weakness, you are stronger for it. You understand where you are, not through sight, but through touch, and feeling. You can feel the simplest vibration of a step flooding through a floor. You can feel the air pulse when someone speaks. But you can do more."

Pea closed her eyes. This time, she blocked out the sound. She made it silent, she muffled Nadia's voice.

She felt.

She curled her feet and stroked the course wooden floor she sat on. She shivered in the draft caused by their open window and embraced the cold gust of wind. She let herself feel the particles of air surrounding her. She felt the solidity of the earth she stood on, the walls that enclosed their home. The gravity of the world collapsed down on her like she was Atlas and the pressure of the earth pushed right back and held her up.

It was like electricity buzzing down a wire. Everything moved.

Pea pushed it all back. "Okay, so I can hear things and I can feel them. What now, then?"

"Now you master all of it. Did you notice that feeling is more than touch? It's pressure and temperature and pain and balance. It's hunger and thirst and so much more."

"I'm not sure I follow." Pea frowned.

"Once you can understand and feel all of it, you will be able to control it."

Pouting, Pea countered. "But you said it would come naturally!"

"Almost. In time, it will. You'll pick it up soon. But I think that's enough for today."

* * *

_A/N: Oh snap, that just happened! _


	3. Part 3: The Royal Son

Pea practiced all week. She stayed up for nights on end and felt until it seemed all her sensory neurons had been fried.

It was a few days later when there was a knock on the door.

Nadia jumped. They never had visitors, it was too dangerous. Who would want to come over to their dump of a home anyway?

Pea stood up and edged towards the door. She tinkered with the locks and pulled it open a crack.

"Hello?" she whispered

On the other side, the man from the Morel House stood smiling for a moment before he suddenly shook his head and laughed. "Oh right, you can't see me! I forgot. It's me, the man from last week?"

Pea slammed the door. "Go away!"

He knocked again. "Please?!

She curled her lip. "I said go away! Go now or I'll get the authorities up on my portscreen in seconds!" She lied. Not a single netscreen graced their hovel of a home.

"Look, let me just say what I'm going to say and then I'll leave. Please?!"

Pea sighed and opened the door. "Make it quick."

"Alright." the man took a deep breath. "MynameisRoyFilsandIworkinthecityatmyfather'scompa nyandanywayit'ssoboringthereandsoIwenttotheMorelho usethatonetimeandheardaboutyouandsawyoufightandyou wereamazingandthethingisI'mreallyinterestedinfight ingbutmyfatherissoagainstithethinksit'ssillytreats melikeakidaboutitandsaysIdon'thavewhatittakesnadIn eedtoproveitandanywayIthinkhe'dbeimpressedbyyouand maybeifIcouldbeatyouinafightoratleastholdmyownthen he'dletmegoanddomythingIdon'tknowbutifyoudothisfor meyouknowfightmethenIcouldpayyouIcouldpayyousomuch andyouandyoufamilyorfriendsorwhoeveryoulivewithin. ..here-" he paused for a moment to take another breathe. "Maybe you could go and make a better living. This fight could get a lot of attention and you can get offers from professionals, so... what do you say?"

"Yeah, I didn't catch any of that." Said Pea, unimpressed.

"My name is Roy, I want to fight professionally but my father won't let me unless he has proof I can actually do it. If you fought me, I could pay you a lot of money and all."

"You don't seem quite convinced of it, yourself. Besides, I'd kick your ass in seconds. Go fight someone you can actually hold your own against."

"I would, but my father won't accept that. I have to fight against someone who is actually good." Roy countered.

Pea couldn't help but feel unconvinced. "Look, you seem like you come from a nice family. Go ask an actual professional to fight you. Not that you'd win against them, either, but seriously, why are you so persistent about fighting me, of all people?"

"I like a challenge, and I know you do, too. I'm a much better fighter than I look. And if that's not enough... well, what if I told you I could promise this would be the fight of your life? A serious challenge?"

"I wouldn't take you seriously. Oh wait, I'm already doing that." said Pea.

He moaned. "Come on! I really need this! You wouldn't just be helping me, but you'd be helping yourself! And-" he stretched his neck and peered through the door, "Who is that? Your grandmother?"

"Hey! Go away! My answer is no." She pushed his head through the door.

"Wait, wait, wait! I promise. Even if I'm not good enough proof that this is a serious fight, let me pick the arena. I promise you'll be impressed. A real challenge! I'll pay you either way, win or lose. A lot of money, too!"

She moved to shut the door, but Roy's hand struck out before she could. A sturdy thunk resonated through the old wooden door. Pea struggled with it, growing more and more irritated, until she finally struck out and aimed a punch at his face. He swung out of the way in a flash, Pea could feel him standing beside her now.

"See? I'm not that bad!"

"For goodness sake, dodging a punch is not an example of your so-called fantastically orgasmic fighting skills!"

He frowned. "I never called them 'fantastic' or 'orgasmic'. I wasn't aware fighting was sexual. I just said they were good."

Pea rolled her eyes. "Will you shut up if I agree?"

"You'll do it?!" beamed Roy.

"Answer the question."

"Yes, yes of course! I'll even gag my mouth!"

Pea groaned. "Stars above, stop talking. You are so weird."

Grinning, Roy shook Pea's hand aggressively and nodded his goodbye.

She shut the door behind him, sighing obnoxiously. "What a freak."

Nadia bit her lip. "What was his last name? Fils?"

"I don't know. He's too much of a fast-talker."

"That name sounds so familiar."

"Who cares?" Pea retorted. "I guess the money will be nice, but whatever. I don't need crap from creeps like him. He didn't even give me any info about anything or ask for a netscreen address."

She continued her training the rest of the day, but got nowhere. Before Pea could rush off to bed in another rage, a knock came at the door for the second time that day.

"Not him again!" Pea snatched the door open but no one was there.

Nadia pushed past her. "There's a letter here for you." She leaned down to pick it up. "Who writes letters anymore?" She handled the fancy stationary with care, sliding her finger to release the wax seal. "That's why it seemed so familiar!" She cried. "Fils! Fils Inc.!"

"The manufacturing company?"

"They're the ones that are always selling those fancy mattresses! The ones that can breath!"

Pea grimaced. "Those things are so strange! No wonder their kid is such a freak, he's got a mouth-breathing mattress!"

Nadia tutted. "He wants you to meet him tomorrow for the fight. At their headquarters in Paris."

"Tomorrow?! Paris?! Is he insane?!"

"You'll just ride the train, then. Won't be that long of a ride, I don't think."

"Are you kidding me, Nadia? He came all the way down to Toulouse to watch me fight! I have a stalker!"

"An admirer." Nadia corrected. "An admirer who is offering quite a bit of money. You can take him in a fight, we both know it. Just go, make it a quick fight and be done with it. Paris is fun, you'll enjoy it."

"Stars above." Pea mumbled. "What have I gotten myself into?"

The next day, Pea rushed to the train station and snuck into the baggage compartment.

Nadia came to send her off. "Why not use the ticket he gave you?" Nadia waved around the red slip they'd found in the envelope. "What's the point of sneaking on?"

"They might check for ID. Now that I know who I am, I'm not confident they'll trust the ID chip. You said it's just a fake one, right?"

Nadia nodded. "It's only coded with basic information to pass typical scans. I couldn't afford a real one."

Pea frowned. "Exactly. I'm not going to risk it."

Of course, Pea knew how ridiculous she sounded. There would undoubtedly be plenty of security drones at the HQ and bodyguard androids and crazy security. Agreeing to this fight was practically suicide, but the amount of money discussed in Roy's letter was too much to pass up.

"Okay, darling. Good luck!" She hugged Pea one last time and sealed the door behind her.


	4. Part 4: The Arena

Pea sat in the room for hours. The train hummed over the magnetic track, racing towards Paris. It was cold, nearly winter, and Pea shivered, wishing she'd brought a jacket. Finally succumbing to her boredom, Pea unzipped one of the bags in the pile and pulled out a portscreen. When a passcode page popped up, she cursed and threw it across the compartment. "This place is so boring!" she muttered.

She tried practicing her powers again, but with no results. After a few hours, the train finally slowed to a stop. Pea sighed, relieved, but only for a moment. The doors to the compartment slid open and left her only seconds to dive behind the pile of bags and luggage and hide.

Two androids and a guard walked in and paced up and down the room, scanning it.

Pea cringed as the guard came nearer and nearer to her hiding place. She was screwed. They'd find her in an instant, scan her chip, and she'd be found out. The best possible scenario ended up with her being arrested and questioned. The worst...well, she didn't want to think about it.

The two androids came closer and closer, scanning every bag until they were right behind her. She curled into a ball, concentrating. "Now would be a great time for my powers to finally start working." She thought to herself anxiously.

She blocked out the sounds of the androids coming closer. She let herself forget the room she was in, the cold steel floor, the rough luggage around her. She let herself feel.

A moment later, the droids passed by and and back to the guard. "Scans complete. Room is empty." One reported.

The guard grumbled. "Check the other compartments, then."

With that, they left.

Pea exhaled a sigh of relief she hadn't even realized she'd been holding. "It worked!" She rejoiced. "Ha! It actually worked!"

Not much later, the train started back up again and was back on track to Paris. Pea continued to practice with renewed vigor, but to no avail.

"Well that's disheartening."

Once the train arrived, Pea rushed to the back of the room before anyone could open the doors and see her. She pulled the emergency exit and made a run for it and out of the station.

She examined the map outside of the station, looking for the Fils building. "Right down the street!" She grinned. "Fantastic!"

In an instant she was sprinting down the streets, winding up and down the sidewalk and maneuvering through the crowds. "Stars above, this place is crowded." She whispered to herself, but her voice was lost in the rumble of people.

It didn't take her long to realize why it was so crowded. When she arrived at the HQ building, the throng had doubled in mass, a legion of at least a couple thousand people all crammed into one street square.

All to see... her?

Thousands of feet all dancing together without any harmony sent shockwave upon shockwave through the concrete. It shot Pea's senses into overdrive. The massive soup of voices all muddled into a gigantic frenzy of shouting and laughter. Was that skin she was touching? An arm? A leg? Or was it cloth? Metal? A portscreen or a hovercam? What was that on her leg? Dripping down her neck? Blowing at her shoulder? She felt so surrounded by the intense sensory overload and yet, she felt nothing at all. Everything was a giant amorphous blob of stuff. Sound, sense, touch, smell, all around her.

As she shoved past everyone impatiently, and edged closer to the building, she could feel the electric buzz of a hovering billboard above her.

When she was just feet away, she could hear an announcer over the speakers by the board. "We're just minutes away from the fight of the year!" He chimed in a boastful, confident voice. He sounded like some sort of smooth, charismatic machine. "The fantastic heir to Fils Incorporated and Paris' very own Roy Fils will face the menacing and terrifyingly skilled Pea of Toulouse in a battle of fates!"

Pea giggled to herself. "What an ass."

There were at least a hundred androids at the main doors. Pea could barely hear their disjointed speech over the masses. She pushed past men, women, children, pets, and who-knows-what, all around the perimeter of the enormous building until the horde finally thinned out. She stumbled through the last of them and felt her way around the solid HQ, feeling for a door. She made her way to the back of the building when just ten meters ahead she heard voices coming towards her.

"Not again, not again." She ducked behind something, though she wasn't quite sure what. There were no street lights anywhere to illuminate her hiding spot and yet she still felt stark naked as they passed without taking notice of her.

She let out a sigh. "That was close."

"What was close?"

"Stars above!" Pea screeched and hopped into the air. "Who is there?" But she already knew. She recognized his voice. "Roy?"

"Didn't want to have to sign any autographs, huh? I get that."

"Er... what are you doing out here?"

"I could ask you the same thing. The fight is supposed to start in just five minutes." Roy retaliated.

"I'm... getting... ready?"

Roy smirked. "You don't sound too confident? Want to forfeit? Fake it and lose? I'd still pay you." He suggested.

Pea scowled. "I don't give up so easily. Should we, uh, go inside, then?"

There was silence, but Pea could sense him nodding. "Oh right, you can't see. I'm nodding-"

"Yes, yes, I know. Just take us inside then. I'm all ready to pound your face in."

He snuck them in through some underground entrance and pulled her into the elevator. "I don't need a guide!" She snapped.

"You were about to walk into the wall." Roy responded dryly.

They sat there in the quiet for a few minutes until Pea finally asked. "How far up are we going? A mile high, or something?"

"Hundredth floor. This isn't one of the main elevators. It's really old, actually. Like, second-era old. It should only take another minute."

"I can't believe there was a time when people had to live like this."

The elevator dinged and the doors slid open. Roy grabbed hold of her hand and dragged her down another hallway. "Okay, where are we going now? I can hear screaming?"

"That would be all our fans!" Roy laughed. "Come on!"

As they entered the next room, Pea felt the temperature change. Sound erupted from everywhere. The air around her vibrated like crazy. Cheering, booing, clapping, screaming. She could hear it all. She could feel it all.

"No way."

"Yup." Roy whispered in her ears and left her side. He walked into the arena, swinging his arms around and causing another wave of cheers to fly from the stands.

Pea edged forward. As soon as she set her foot on the arena floor, she finally understood.

It was a mattress. But not just any mattress. Fils Inc.'s own "earth-quake safe" mattress. The first ones they ever sold, for "the smoothest sleep of your life- guaranteed!" She recalled.

He knew. He knew she relied on her sense of feeling. But in here, she had nothing. The shock of every step was absorbed into the pillow-y mattress. Everything was off-balance and wrong. She wouldn't even see him coming.

A bell dinged and the announcer yelled over the crowds. "Are you ready?"

For a moment, the room was so loud, it was like silence. But the sound set in quickly and practically exploded in Pea's ears. They were ready.

"In three... two... one- FIGHT!"

She couldn't feel him as he sprinted towards her. It wasn't until the floor beneath her dipped forward that she realized he was directly in front of her. She narrowly escaped his first attack with a duck and a somersault between his legs, but he was on her before she could get back up. She landed a punch to his face and felt a cracking sound. He flew back, clutching his nose and laughing.

Pea bit her lip. He wasn't kidding about this "challenge of a lifetime."

"Testing my sensitivity, are we?!" Pea taunted, but she knew it was useless to try yelling over the jeering of the stadium.

She grumbled and charged forward, trying to feel the air around her, instead. She let the vibration of the thousands of voices drift off into a whisper at the back of her mind and searched for Roy. She felt his breath, his heartbeat.

But he was quicker than she gave him credit for and dodged her before she could get a hit in. He kicked her legs out from behind her and she barely bounced over the soft, muted material of the arena. "This the biggest mattress I've ever seen!" She laughed sarcastically. "Well... felt, really!"

"No time for jokes now, sweetheart!"

Pea rolled her eyes. "Have we resorted to name-calling already?" She circled around him carefully, blocking out the rest of the sensory input. There was only him and her.

"It was meant to be endearing!"

"Really?" She flipped forward and landed in a crouch on his shoulders. He collapsed beneath her with a loud grunt. "Because you sounded pretty sarcastic to me, sweetheart."

He pushed her off with a knee to her stomach and rolled back out of where Pea could sense him.

"Damn it." She cursed, and flung herself out of the way of another oncoming attack.

She landed hard on her shoulder, the mattress didn't do much to break her fall, strangely enough. Roy was back on top of her, getting as many punches and jabs in as he could before she tossed him into the air.

The room was churning with tense excitement, Pea could barely pick his movements out from the rest.

She knew what she would need to do. She was tuckered out already and he was doing exactly what she normally did and dodging most of her attacks. He had the advantage of sight.

But she had the advantage of power.

She made the room fall silent. Whether they'd actually quieted down didn't matter to her, she blocked it out. Roy came forward again, but she swiped away his fist and ducked. She let her heartbeat resonate through her ears and heard the trickling of sweat down her brow. Then she focused her attention on him. His right arm was more tired than his left, based on his attacks. He left it dangling and unguarded. His breathing was heavy. She could feel him nearly twenty meters away.

"Your mattress is nothing." She thought with a smug grin. He came barreling forward with one last hit. "I've got you now."

She felt her body move like she was in water and then suddenly bursting out of it. Like a movie speeding up as it fast-forwards. He was down, knocked out, his arm twisted behind him. She wasn't even sure what she'd done to get him down, but he was out.

The crowds screamed and cheered and booed. Her powers were under her control. The reward was hers.

She won. 

* * *

_A/N Yay! It's finally over! I hope that didn't seem too silly with the mattress arena. There is very little of the Princess and the Pea tale to work with. (It's literally, like, five sentences long. Yes, that was the correct usage of the word literally)._

_Upcoming LC retellings:_

_Gem: A retelling of Goldilocks. Gem is an escaped Lunar fugitive who now lives as a robber in a corrupt American city. Things get dangerous when she is caught up in the affairs of a gang/mafia-type group called B.E.A.R._

_Khalil: a retelling of Thumbelina (Coverart here: art/Khalil-cover-410531159 ) Khalil Sagheer Mehta was a lively girl...that is, until she died. Her grieving mother hand-crafted an advanced personal android that not only looked and acted like the real Khalil, but thought like her too. But soon she'll learn when you give something a mind of its own, it's no longer a something, but a someone._

_Scale: a retelling of the little Mermaid (Coverart here: art/Scale-cover-411851329 ) Scale only knows the tank she lives in. She lives only to serve her queen. But everything changes when she falls for one of the scientists studying her._

_Anyway, I hope you enjoyed that! I love feedback of all kinds, positive, or negative, as long as it's helpful! Mind you, I'm currently working on my NaNo novel as well, so it may take a while for the next story (most likely Gem) to be posted. Keep an eye out, I guess._


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